Business Supporters

Oregon business owners know that a paid family and medical leave insurance program is good for Oregon businesses.

“Oregon employers, and the people who work for us, would benefit from a Paid Family and Medical Leave Insurance Program. It will ensure that we can accommodate common life and family events – from birth through the end of life – without financial hardship. Plus, when employees have paid family and medical leave, they’re more likely to return to work after the period where leave was needed – a critical cost-savings for employers. It’s long past time for paid family and medical leave, and I’m thrilled to support the effort to win it for families and businesses across our state.” Sabrina Parsons, CEO at Palo Alto Software

“At Bora Architects, we created our own paid family leave policy a year ago. In the process of developing it, we did a lot of research and found that paid family leave is shown to help with retention of employees as people return to full time work sooner and stay for the long term. That’s a good thing for workers, their families, our businesses, and the economy as a whole. We believe that we need a statewide paid family and medical leave insurance program will be great for Oregon.” Amy Donohue, Partner at Bora Architects

“I support a paid family and medical leave insurance program because I know it’s critical for the people who work for me and because it’s good for business. Trying to provide family leave benefits without an insurance program to fund them is simply not an option for most small businesses. That’s why need the state to lead the way – creating a program that ensures all families can manage the ups and downs that are inevitable during some points of their working lives. In addition, making paid family and medical leave more universally available is critical to ensuring that women are treated equitably at work. Until we ensure that everyone can take paid leave to welcome a new child or care for a family member, women will continue to experience wage and leadership gaps.” Kerry McClenahan, CEO at McClenahan Bruer

“At FMYI, we know from experience that paid time off is critical for our employees and also benefits our business. We support paid family and medical leave insurance because it’s the right thing to do and because we know it will not hurt business.” Katrina Yuen, Director of Human Resources at FMYI

“Over the years, I have worked with hundreds of new moms in my “Yoga for Postnatal Recovery” classes, and I myself am the mother of two young children. It is very clear that families, especially women, need more support during this vulnerable phase of life than they are currently getting. We all know that having a baby can be physically exhausting for caregivers, but when you add to that the financial uncertainty that comes with unpaid family and medical leave, stress about whether you will have a job to go back to, and heartbreak about what will happen to your newborn baby if you do rush back to work before you’re ready, you end up with a population of new mothers who are undergoing chronic, low-level trauma when they should be resting, recovering and bonding with their babies. Paid family and medical leave insurance is a much needed solution for the many Oregonians who will at some point need to take time off of work to care for a loved one. At Yoga Refuge we fully support this policy.” Kate Sanderson Holly, Director of Yoga Refuge

“At Rose City Mortgage, we already offer long-term paid time off if someone has a baby or ill family member and have paid for up to 20 weeks of leave. We have found that this policy creates an incredibly productive and loyal staff. A statewide paid family and medical leave insurance program will ensure that all workers in our state have access to this important benefit, and will actually help small employers to retain employees.” Renee Spears, Rose City Mortgage

“I believe that strong families begin at work and all stakeholders should share the expense. My company puts kids first in our practice. It only makes sense employees should be able to apply that to their own children as well. The Hello Foundation welcomes the chance to support employees that may get sick, children as they arrive, or aging parents that need transitional support. We could afford to do this if all Oregon employers joined forces and supported paid leave.” Sharon Soliday, Founder of The Hello Foundation

“It’s time for Oregon to embrace what the rest of the world already recognizes — that workers also have families to care for, and that paid family leave is critical to the well-being of our families, our workforce, and our society. Paid family and medical leave in Oregon will support workers all along the life cycle — as they have babies, as they attend to their own aging parents, as they need time for their own medical issues. It is long past due.” Jason Graham-Nye, Co-Founder of gDiapers

“XPLANE believes that organizations are only made stronger by creating programs that let employees better balance their work and home life. As a small business we have seen the many ways that supporting employees helps our bottom line. That is why we have implemented many family friendly work policies and encourage other companies to do the same. But as we tell our clients the best outcomes happen when we work together, and it is in that spirit that we ask that all Oregonians to support bringing a robust family leave program to our state. We believe that by caring for all workers, we will help grow business, help families and continue to make Oregon a great place to work and live.” Katie Augsburger, XPLANE